The decision to close the Varnum Avenue campus, operated by Arbour Health Systems, comes after the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership ended its contract with the center "due to quality concerns," according to a MassHealth spokesperson.

In addition, the health partnership didn't renew its contract because of actions taken by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Mental Health. Last year, the Department of Mental Health found "serious issues involving patient safety and the cleanliness and organization of the facility," the agency said. The agency then halted new admissions at that time.

"MassHealth is working to ensure sufficient capacity and access to inpatient psychiatric services," a MassHealth spokesperson said in a statement Thursday morning.

"We are working with the provider to ensure all current patients are transferred to appropriate placements this week," added a Department of Mental Health spokesperson.

Shawn Daugherty, executive director of the Lowell Treatment Center, confirmed Thursday that the center is closing. As of Monday, there were 11 adult inpatients at the center.

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As of Tuesday, the facility stopped admitting new patients.

"The safe and seamless transition of patients, either discharged to home or transferred to other local facilities, is now our top priority," Daugherty said in a statement.

He said the center decided to shut down after completing a "comprehensive review of multiple factors" -- including the availability of inpatient beds and outpatient programs at other state behavioral-health facilities. The center -- located in the Solomon Mental Health building near Lowell General Hospital -- would have also needed upgrades in the future, Daugherty added.

For 17 years, the center has offered inpatient hospitalization and partial hospitalization for adolescents and adults seeking treatment at some of the most difficult periods of their lives.

"This is a huge loss for the Lowell community," an employee who declined to be named said Thursday morning. "It's just devastating, so sad that the community is losing this mental-health support."

The loss of patient beds in the region has troubled mental-health advocates for years. Many programs have vanished.

For instance, Lowell General Hospital closed its psychiatric unit several years ago. It was the last facility of its kind in Greater Lowell, but the associated costs with keeping the facility open were too great to sustain.

Staff and patients at the Lowell Treatment Center learned about Friday's closure Monday.

Employees will be offered other positions in Arbour Health Systems, according to the anonymous employee, but many of those jobs are not in Greater Lowell.

"How are you doing? You OK?" one employee said to another at the center Thursday morning.

"Yeah, hanging in there," the colleague responded.

Last year, the center was ordered to address safety issues observed in an inspection before resuming new admissions. In November 2016, a Department of Mental Health inspection found low staffing levels at the center, prompting a temporary order to halt admissions.

The center has been subject to federal scrutiny as well. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which oversees workplace safety, announced more than $200,000 in fines against the Lowell Treatment Center because the center's employees were allegedly exposed to threats of violence.

OSHA officials first warned of violations in May 2015, when an inspection found the hospital's roughly 130 employees faced risks of "verbal threats of assault, physical assaults, choking, punches, kicks, human bites, scratches and/or pulling of hair by patients."

Lowell Treatment Center agreed in April 2016 to implement new policies by that November. A later OSHA investigation alleged that the center failed to do so. During that time, at least three employees suffered injuries, including one case manager who missed 14 days of work after reportedly being punched and scratched by a patient, suffering a scratched cornea, black eye, blurred vision, head injury and contusions and bruises.

The center was issued $197,730 in fines from OSHA's follow-up.

"We thank the physicians and staff for their expertise and dedication in providing quality, compassionate treatment and care to the patients we have been privileged to serve," the center's executive director said in a statement Thursday.

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